A place to come to see what's new at Heritage Spinning & Weaving – Lake Orion, MI

The title “grandmother” has certain responsibilities. Like taking part in a new child’s life. Unfortunately, my 6-month old grandson lives in the northwest Chicago suburbs – it’s not easy to pop over and say hello. So, Sunday, Mother’s Day, I climbed on the train at oh-dark-thirty (as we used to say in the Army) in Flint, lunched in downtown Chicago, hopped on the Metra for another 90 minutes and finally arrived to find said grandbaby and his daddy waiting to retrieve me at the train station. As you can see, Luke is doing just fine. He’s a cutie pie and I got to spend a lot of time with him (teething . . . fun, fun!).

I actually look forward to the train rides to see baby Luke and family. I get peace and quiet (well, on the way over when I rode in business class, anyhow) and time to snooze, read and catch up on TV shows (thank goodness for iPods!). Mostly, tho I worked and I can share some of that with you. I was busy scheduling classes for the next year. Yes, I schedule my life and some of the instructors lives that far out. Sitting on the train with nothing to stop my work I plowed through piles of notes, printouts of emails and relied heavily on a well-scribbled on calendar. Scheduling classes give one a whole new appreciation for what happens in high schools and colleges!

One of the cool things you will see happening in our classes is that Becca, our young weaver, will be teaching more classes. Those of you who have had Becca as an assistant have loved her and agree she knows her stuff. Well, we are putting that stuff to work in two classes. A learn to weave in a weekend class and project based classes for new weavers. She’ll be weaving us samples for the project classes. This first year we will offer three different project classes: a pillow, placemats and dishtowels.

Based on the feedback from this just-graduated Spinning Boot Camp, I have extracted the spinning the breeds lesson from SBC and am turning it into a Focus series for spinners in the form of a class called The Breed of the Month. I’ll have washed wool for you (and an unwashed sample) and all the research done. Together we’ll explore the wool and decide how we best like it prepared and spun. I think it is going to be great fun and participants will build a helpful library of wools. The BOM class is on Wednesday evenings and we’ll kick off with Gotland. Limited to 12 students, don’t wait to sign up!

We’ve added three new Focus classes for knitters: Focus on . . . Shetland Lace, Fit and Socks. Jae (www.someknitreq.com) is teaching the latter two. In addition to these classes, in the fall, I’ll also be running Focus on Fair Isle again. Love this class!!! Watching what happens with color is incredible.

I also scheduled some old favorite classes, including: the Wallaby, Baby Einstein, the Fish Sweater, EZs Baby Surprise, and thrummed mittens. Plus, we have a group of classes that feature our original designs, among them: Joy’s 4-ruffle scarf (pattern is now available and the scarf is on display in the shop) and Joan’s Mariko Scarf, Quick Flap Cap and the Geometric Beaded Scarf.

By no means did I finish my scheduling work on one train trip, but I sure made a dent in it. Watch the newsletter and website over the next month or so as we add new things. And, if you have ideas for a class that you absolutely must have, please let us know.